The arrival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has caused a frenzy of activity, with HE leaders jumping on the opportunity to meet the visiting Indian delegation.
Flinders University announced they had received the green light to join the Albanese Government policy-induced rush to open offshore campuses – one of the few remaining opportunities for universities to still pursue unfettered growth in international enrolments.
The Federal Government’s policy allows Australian institutions a narrow pathway to financial sustainability without significant cost to the Australian Government and avoiding the political risk of allowing additional international students to study onshore.
Flinders will open an international campus in Bengaluru in early 2027, offering business and IT courses. Eight Australian universities have now committed to hanging out their shingle in India. Flinders will be neighbours with UNSW, which opens for its first day of classes – in, you guessed it, business and IT – next month.
VU will also stride across the start line in August, with news announced yesterday that the Indian Government has approved the opening of their campus in Gurugram, just south of New Delhi, delivering sport science in addition to business, IT, transplanting the university’s Block Model.
140,000 Indian students studied in Australian institutions last year, and whether the offshore campuses end up being able to attract anything like that number in India will be a matter of great interest to the sector.
Modi Mania captured cameras and attention across Australia. Given the Indian PM is apparently one of the most popular leaders in the democratic world according to some polls, it is worthwhile celebrating milestones when the Indian leader is in close proximity.
It is also rare for Prime Minister Albanese to pose with university leaders en masse, although one suspects that the currency of a picture with PM Modi carries substantially more potential enrolment benefits, given the regulation of onshore numbers.